20141127海燕風災回顧展Witnessing the Power of Love in the Philippines
On November 8 last year, Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines, causing severe devastation across a vast area there. At the time, Tzu Chi volunteers immediately mobilized to provide aid as they could not bear to see people suffer.
In Tacloban one of the worst-hit areas, there is a barangay captain who owned a very large chicken and pig farm. Having come across Tzu Chi volunteers and learned about the law of karma, he knew what he did for a living created the karma of killing.
So, he decided to give up his animal farming business. Then, he switched to a vegetarian diet and began to volunteer with Tzu Chi. He also encourages people in his community to join Tzu Chi.
See how he walked around the community to invite people to attend a volunteer training program held by Tzu Chi. He is how very dedicated to Tzu Chi. His entire family have also joined Tzu Chi.
After he gave up his pig and chicken farming business, a foreign aid agency came and rented the land and all the facilities on it to be used for other purposes. Without having to run the farm, he has more time now. So, he can dedicate to Tzu Chi’s work and is now training to be our volunteer.
A local businessman also said that if it hadn’t been for Tzu Chi, the local economy couldn’t have been revived. So, he was inspired and has now become our first Chinese volunteer in Tacloban.
When I saw how much Tzu Chi has done for Tacloban, I’m ashamed of myself as I live here, but I didn’t do anything to help. So, I began to invite my friends to join Tzu Chi in doing good. They responded warmly. I’ve recruited 100 donating members now.
See how their minds have been transformed. In the past, they worked hard to make money solely for the benefit of themselves. When we paid the locals 500 pesos a day to clean up the disaster areas, many local businesspeople were concerned because it was much higher than what they usually pay the locals.
But, they didn’t realized then that if we didn’t pay that much, given the scale of devastation, what would happen to the local economy?
The wage here is 260 pesos per day, but Tzu Chi paid 500 pesos. We didn’t understand why at first. But Tzu Chi explained to us that the money was not wages, but financial aid to help the locals recover from the disaster.
Later, we realized that what you did had helped boost the economy so that many affected businesspeople were able to resume their businesses. This is very important. We used to work for our own benefit. But Tzu Chi encourages people to serve unconditionally and selflessly. This is indeed very remarkable.
With Tzu Chi volunteers’ love, the locals gradually resumed their normal lives. They now help and support one another and encourage one another to do Tzu Chi’s work.
One year after Typhoon Haiyan hit, a photo exhibit on the disaster was held. Next to each photo, the person in that photo would stand there to share his or her story with everyone. One day, a woman came to the exhibit. When she saw a refrigerator in a photo, she burst into tears.
She recalled how she was trying to save her three children when the water was rising up. So, upon seeing a refrigerator floating on the water, she asked her three children to get in, hoping that they could be rescued.
Unexpectedly, a lady bubbled up from the water and grabbed the refrigerator. Then, the refrigerator tipped over and sank. The mother watched helplessly as her three children were drowned.
For over a year, maybe this mother has been living in pain and grief and her heart has been shrouded in misery. Now that she has come across Tzu Chi volunteers, I’m sure she’ll be gradually guided to give of her love to other people.
Apart from her three children, maybe she’ll come to realize that there are other people who also need her love.
Life is truly filed with much suffering. It’s been a year, and the Philippines has been reborn from the disaster. To further better the country, we need to share wholesome teachings with the locals.
So, we’ve given out Jing Si Aphorisms for Children to the children in Ormoc City. I’m very grateful to those who have donated the books as well as to teachers from Malaysia for going to the Philippines to share with the local teachers how to teach Jing Si Aphorisms in class.
When teaching children the aphorism about how being filial and doing good cannot wait, the teachers held an activity for children to wash their mothers feet so they could feel how coarse their mothers feet actually are and realize how hard their parents have worked for them.
See how children and mothers hugged together. This is a form of education. Apart from guiding children, we’ve also been encouraging adults to do good. So, many people in Tacloban and Ormochave now been inspired to give with love.
Helping others is very important. Just like what the volunteer said, we are all brothers and sisters and we are all part of this world. So, we should help each other.
When people came to the photo exhibit, they brought the coins they saved to us. There were so many coins that it took our volunteers several days to count them all. In total, there were 1.65 million pesos.
See, such is the power of love. We have borne witness to how Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines last November and how some areas described as “ghost towns ”were brought back to life.
What we’ve done after the disaster will leave a legacy in history and become a part of Tzu Chi’s sutra treasury. All this is made possible with love and everyone’s contributions no matter how insignificant they may seem.
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